No Heat qualifying offer for Terrel Harris

A week ago, on the eve of free agency, Miami Heat President Pat Riley spoke of the hopes his team had for Heat free-agent guard Terrel Harris.

“We like him,” he said. “We like him a lot.”

And then something rather curious happened: nothing.

The Sun Sentinel has learned that the Heat bypassed extending a qualifying offer to the seldom-used rookie guard, leaving him an unrestricted free agent instead of a restricted free agent. As a result, the Heat do not maintain the right to match outside offers.

While Harris is expected to work with the team this summer, several factors in the new collective-bargaining agreement worked against Harris when it came to a qualifying offer.